The five-year phase-in shows Congress contemplated a substantial equipment change

Evidence

Although Judge Sanborn passes over the point, the fact was that Congress allowed five years, subject to a limited extension in the discretion of the Interstate Commerce Commission, for satisfaction of the coupling requirement. This suggests, does it not, that the contemplated change was not insubstantial? The further fact was that the railroads had secured two extensions before the Act at length became effective. Would it be relevant to inquire on what grounds these extensions were sought? — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 1038

Categorization

• QUESTION: Raises the editor’s signature move: unexamined legislative-history facts (phase-in length, repeated railroad extensions) bear directly on revealed congressional purpose.
• XREF: connects to: Requiring universal inter-coupling between all cars would have created a coupler monopoly — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 1007; Railroad workers faced battlefield rates of death from dangerous car coupling — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 1145